Children are not considered pandemic drivers to open school

The Federal Council plans to reopen the schools in May. Because so far there have hardly been any children in Switzerland who have COVID-19. However, science warns against too quick conclusions.

On Friday, Daniel Koch, the Corona delegate from the federal government, doubled. The children are very likely not the drivers of this disease. There are infected children, but most of them are infected by their parents.

He comes to this conclusion after personal interviews with pediatricians who specialize in infectiology, i.e. pediatricians, who deal with contagious diseases: “I can assure you that these are the professors who are currently carrying out studies in this area.”

Very mild or no symptoms

At the beginning of the crisis, Koch hesitated to recommend closing the schools. He wanted to prevent the grandparents from taking care of the children. The idea was to protect vulnerable groups. The generations should no longer mix. In the end, however, the Federal Council played it safe. On March 13, he decreed that local classes may no longer be held. The children have been at home ever since.

“”There are some indications that children and adolescents are not the main drivers of the Sars CoV-2 pandemic,” confirms Christoph Berger, a pediatrician and head of the Infectious Diseases Department at Zurich Children’s Hospital, Koch’s statements. To date, only 0.4 percent of confirmed Sars CoV 2 cases in Switzerland are younger than ten years, 2.6 percent younger than 20 years. Statistics from other countries show that less than ten percent of the confirmed Sars-CoV-2 cases affect children and adolescents.

Intensive debate in science

However, these statistics appear to underestimate the true extent of infection among the under 20s. Because in almost all countries, most people with at least moderate symptoms have been and are currently being tested for Sars-CoV-2. However, according to all previous studies and observations, infected children and adolescents usually develop no or only very mild symptoms, hospitalizations were rare and only occasional deaths occurred. Not only in Switzerland are there far fewer children tested than adults. It is therefore unclear how high the number of unreported children is.

So far, there is no medical evidence that children and adolescents are less contagious. However, the scientific data is still thin because there are little known Sars-CoV-2 cases in children. In a Chinese study, the transmission rate in households with children and adolescents was examined in more detail. Through surveys and tests of 1,286 contact persons from 391 infected people, the researchers from Shenzhen found that the infection rate among children and adolescents in this group was just as high as that among adults, namely a good 7 percent each.

Separation of the generations remains

“But children are apparently according to Chinese studies infected mainly by adults and not by peers, “stresses Berger. This would have been the result of studies in families with infected children and adults. An infected child is probably less contagious because it shows hardly any symptoms and therefore hardly coughs and sneezes. Infected children, therefore, distributed fewer viruses overall and this in a smaller environment than infected adults.

Virologists, epidemiologists, and doctors are currently debating whether children are drivers of the Sars-CoV-2 epidemic. After all that is known so far, it is also unclear whether and how much school closures can help curb the pandemic. Some authors say yes, others don’t. There is only agreement that the acute economic consequences of school closings are great.

As always in the past few weeks, the federal government may not be speaking fully in indicative terms either: Daniel Koch did not want to recommend visiting the grandchildren to their grandparents on Friday in front of the media: “Despite everything, there can be infected children, you cannot be 100 percent sure that there is no infection. ” Schools can open, but family contacts between generations remain broken. The grandparents will still miss the children’s bustle for a while.